


Dinner

by Identiaetslos



Series: Alex Ryder Story Arcs [18]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst, Dating, F/F, Fluff, Keep Your Love Blue, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-02-18 13:44:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18700792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Identiaetslos/pseuds/Identiaetslos





	1. Chapter 1

Yet another story undermined by Director Tann and his leadership, Davis Qar grumbled under his breath and pinched his nose at the news from Keri T’Vessa. She’d been hard at work at her Path of a Hero series which put the journey to Heleus and the human Pathfinder front and center.

Only thing was that like any sensible interview subject, Alexandra Ryder was smarter than the average bear, and had a mouth just like Keri’s. That meant that Tann wasn’t happy and taking out on the reporter he had personally hired to tell this story in the first place.

It left a sour taste in Davis’ mouth that tasted all too familiar. People like Tann were the reason why he left the Milky Way in the first place.

Keri was exasperated as she told him of Tann’s plan to edit her footage.

“Correction? Is it a factual error?” Davis asked of Keri.

“No, he just ‘doesn’t like it,’” Keri replied, irritation dripping from her voice.

“Then tell him to shove it up his ass...politely,” Davis snapped.

Keri snorted on the other end of the line.

“Hey, Davis,” the familiar and unexpected voice of Alex Ryder startled Davis and he looked up.

“Hey yourself! What...I thought...Keri said you weren’t due in for another week,” Davis said.

“What?” Davis overheard Keri ask on the other end of the still-open comm channel.

“We needed last minute supplies for a big expedition,” Alex replied and then smirked as she glanced at his Omni-Tool. “Is that Keri?” She asked in a whispered voice. The change in her face to genuine excitement was something not wholly unexpected, but a privilege to witness.

Ever since Path of A Hero had started, speculation had been swirling around the public that there was something more to the palpable on-screen chemistry between Alex and Keri. As far as Davis knew, the two of them remained at a professional distance, but Davis knew that Keri had been exchanging letters and photographs outside of the professional norm.

Keri also was fussier than normal when she knew that Alex was scheduled to come in, and irritable if thwarted an opportunity to talk to her. She also stood at the big picture window that saw into the newsroom at the docking port whether Alex was there or not and looked like a woman with someone on her heart.

Davis knew that look all too well.

“Hey Keri. Guess who I found?” Davis said in a louder voice and held up his Omni-Tool to Alex.

“Who?” Keri asked.

Alex rolled her eyes and looked as though an attempt at a surprise had been foiled. “Hey babe,” Alex said.

Hoping to make it up to both of them, Davis snapped a picture and sent it to Keri.

Keri stifled a giggle on the other end. “When did you get in?” She asked of Alex.

“Have time for a chat?” Alex asked.

Keri giggled again. “I’m off in a few hours. Meet at Vortex?”

“How about my place? Wear your best dress.”

There was a brief pause from Keri and Davis could almost see the look on her face. “I don’t have one. I guess I’ll have to show up naked.” Keri’s voice was saccharine and having a flirt tossed back at her was enough to turn Alex’s cheeks bright red.

Alex looked lost for words.

Davis couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?” Keri asked.

“I think you broke her, Keri,” Davis said through laughter, prompting an even more hysterically funny look from Alex.

Davis caught his breath and looked at Alex and then at his Omni-Tool. A seriousness washed over him and he thought of Grov...wherever he was. “Tell you what, Keri,” he said into his Omni-Tool. “I’ll get Hakim to go over that last minute editing for you. Why don’t you take off early?”

There was a pause and Alex looked embarrassed for a moment, which was not the reaction Davis was hoping for.

“Davis...” Keri’s voice was serious.

“No, it’s okay,” Alex urged.

Davis made a face and conjured up emotions deep from a place that he never wanted to see again. “If anything the last few months have taught me, it’s that it’s never worth it to wait. Not when it’s two people crazy about each other.” He closed the comm channel with Keri and smiled sorrowfully at Alex. “We have a new office. Habitat Block 1, Third Floor.”


	2. Chapter 2

Alex Ryder’s heart was in her nose. She ascended the ramp leading up to the HNS Office overlooking the docking port, hoping that the extra time instead of taking the elevator would calm her nerves any. It didn’t and the look on her face along with the flowers in her hands prompted a few passers by to stop her and give her words of encouragement.

Whoever these were for, she was a lucky girl. Was it Keri? Or someone she was meeting at Nels’s for dinner?

Suddenly, Alex felt conscious that her uniform wasn’t fitting properly, and it was wrinkly. How would this really go? It was one thing to romanticize over unfinished thoughts left in letters. Keri had made it clear that she was interested, but her profession allowed her to show only so much. Was this too far?

It probably was.

Davis’ words burned in Alex’s mind: There was no sense in waiting if she was who truly mattered. On second thought, these were words from an injured man.

Before she realized it, Alex’s feet were on the third floor. Directly in front of her was the door and the words, “HELEUS NEWS SERVICE” in bold blue letters with the same type face as everything else officially sponsored by the Initiative on the Nexus.

Alex stared at it for a long moment, collecting her thoughts and her courage.

Just beyond that door was a woman that Alex knew deep down, she was falling madly in love with. Was it Keri she loved, or was it an idea? She didn’t really know. That was the purpose of having dinner with her wasn’t it? That was the invitation if she remembered correctly.

Not a date, though. Professional. Even though as hard as Alex tried, she couldn’t think of anything professional to bring up with Keri. All she could think of is what Keri would look like when that door parted. She’d be small against the door frame, her lavender skin beautiful and the soft lights of the corridor picking up the stripes on her head. She’d smile with those sunny eyes and her voice would melt upon Alex’s ears.

Weeks of bloodshed a whisked into a distant memory as Keri reminded her that there was more to life than this.

Alex let out a sigh and stared down at the flowers in their planter.

That was a lot to put on a single person. Keri was just a woman, a reporter, and this...whatever it was, wasn’t what she really wanted.


	3. Chapter 3

Davis hadn’t specifically told her to wait, but Keri T’Vessa took his last transmission as implying that she should. Being in one location would make it easier for Alex to find her, and the thought of her doing so made her heart skip.

The daylight aboard the station had begun to fade into a dusky amber that brought up the lights around the newly minted HNS office. It was just she and Hakim, and he was quiet as he always was when he was deep into his editing.

It reminded Keri of Alex’s last letter, and the photograph she sent with it. She’d been on Eos and while Keri didn’t agree with the high cliff that Alex took the photo on, she did love that the Pathfinder managed to capture everything that was beautiful about Eos in one shot. Namely herself.

A small smile crept across Keri’s lips and she picked up the photo frame from her desk and snapped it to that very shot, and touched the screen where Alex’s silly expression was silhouetted against the fading light.

From her left, Keri heard Hakim stir in a way he always did when he was secretly making fun of her.

Keri’s growing relationship with Alex Ryder wasn’t talked about verbally in this office, at least until today, but Davis nor Hakim nor the new Angaran woman were oblivious. Keri wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

On one hand, she loved the thought of Alex. That handsome face, and those arms wrapping around her. Love in the purest. But on the other, there was something so embarrassingly tawdry about getting involved with an interview subject.

The idea was to change things from the way they were back home, not become another cog.

Alex had been respectful, even though the look in her eyes the longer she waited made Keri’s heart yearn.

Why, by the Goddess, did she have to meet Alex like this?

“Keri...” Hakim’s voice woke her from her thoughts and she followed his finger to the one-way glass window and Alex as she was walking away from the door, looking frustrated.

Keri leaped to her feet and her heart thudding loudly through her body, turning her legs into mush as she ran to the door and slapped the door panel to open it. “Alex?” Thankfully, she caught the Pathfinder before she’d a chance to disappear, and the Pathfinder stopped.


	4. Chapter 4

Somehow, Keri looked taller than Alex remembered, but twice as beautiful. She still wore her green and white civilian outfit, and the camera pinned to her chest was switched off for once. Pale scales of exhaustion were around the edges of Keri’s head crests and she looked as though she were holding back the urge to fly into Alex’s arms.

Alex wanted very much to tell her to do such a thing, but propriety placed at mute upon her words and she just stood there, clutching the bouquet dumbly at her side as she struggled with what else to say.

“Are these for me?” Keri asked, breaking the silence. She approached, letting the door close behind her and took the flowers from Alex’s hands and sniffed them.

“Yes...they are a new variety from Kadara. They don’t get very big, and as you can see, I’ve included the bulbs so you can grow them in your office.”

“That’s very thoughtful,” Keri said with amusement and gestured for Alex to follow her back into her office. “I hope that Hydroponics got some of your charm as well,” she joked and placed the plant on her desk. “Have you decided where you want to go?” She asked.

“Honestly, my head was so filled with seeing you, I hadn’t much thought to any other plans.”

Keri’s cheeks colored a dark purplish hue and she looked radiant against the darkening sky. “Well, I haven’t eaten--”

“--You should try Nels’,” Hakim interjected. “They’ve been doing some creative things with Angaran food paste that I think you’d both enjoy.”

Keri looked stunned and then embarrassed.

Alex couldn’t help a blush herself and nodded in approval to Hakim. “Thank you, Hakim. Sorry, I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Good to see you too, Alex,” Hakim said warmly. “Try to get a table on the balcony,” he added as the two of them left the office.

\- - - - - - 

All of the spaces above the science lab in this part of the station were new to the public. Well, what parts of the public that hadn’t been responsible for repairing them in the first place. Kesh mentioned that the HNS Office was actually a converted Nexus Security Station that Kandros had moved.

Sadly, the corridor was devoid of the picturesque view that the office afforded, but the space that the restaurant was another story. Formerly Sergeant Nels of Nexus Security had found a good spot for her business.

Keri agreed with Addison that repurposing the third floor Security Office for civilian use made the Nexus feel less like a prison, and in this moment, walking from her office alongside the Pathfinder felt...normal. Like this could be any day on the Citadel.

That last thought was enough to give Keri pause in her foosteps and she looked to Alex. Nothing about this person was normal, she reminded herself. She was the most extraordinary human in the galaxy. She was even tall, dark hair and eyes, olive skin, muscles that made the fabric of her uniform taut. She was a superhero.

Only, she wasn’t. Alex Ryder wasn’t an ideal, she was a person. And even superheroes found love.

Did she love Alex? Keri wondered. The idea wasn’t as scary as she thought it would be, the more she thought about it. Perhaps if the person she was in love with didn’t make her laugh or drive her crazy in all the ways that mattered, she’d feel differently.

Alex looked deflated, as though her remaining hope for this evening had left and she ran a hand through her short, dark hair in a way that soothed Keri’s nerves. “Keri...we don’t have to put ourselves through this. What Davis said was true for him, but for us...we’re writing a new story and--”

Before Alex could finish Keri reached out and took Alex’s hand.

Keri let her heart pound nervously and her hand linger. She’d never touched Alex before. Her hand was softer and thicker than she’d imagined, her touch not as firm, but likely because she looked broken in this moment. It felt a lot more like home than Keri wanted to admit just yet, but wasn’t afraid to express with a comforting smile at Alex.

Alex returned it with that handsome look on her face that inspired Keri to grip her hand more firmly.

“Come have dinner with me,” Keri said in a gentle voice and led Alex to the doorstep of the restaurant.


End file.
